Report of the Library Director for February 2013

Photocopier replaced and can act as Scanner – Universal Class live –

Circulation
February circulation activity was 4,934, which is a 10.3% decrease from last month, and 0.9% lower than previous years.   The decrease from January is expected, because of the difference in number of days open, and I am happy that circ for this month remained very close to our historical average for February.

Laptops: 5.  Nooks: 6.  Games: 99.

Unique Patrons

272 Upton patrons checked out items in the last week of January.

Digital Content Use

BYKI: In February, 6 users accessed byki for a total of 7.5 hours.  Our top languages were Polish and French.

Wowbrary: 3 new users signed up for Wowbrary, for a total of 122 active subscribers.

Overdrive: eBook circulation to Upton patrons: 152, eAudio circulations: 28. 

New Patron Registrations:  15 new patrons registered in February.

New Items: We added approximately 84 items to the collection in February.

Passport Applications processed in February: 6.

Programs
Library book group: 4 people met on February 27^th.
Senior book group: 8 people met on February 5^th.

Thursday storytime averaged 7 children per session for 8 sessions.
TinyTots lapsit averaged 4 children per session for 2 sessions. 
Library Table: 4 visits, averaged 13 patrons and 42 items.

Lego Days: averaged 10 children per session for 2 sessions.

Special Events

Pastel Painting Workshop – 21 adults participated on Feb 5^th.

Origami Puppets – 46 children and parents participated on Feb 19^th.

Spanish Storytime – 8 children participated on Feb 28^th.

Nicole read to 2^nd grade class at Memorial School as part of Read Across America Day.

Plans for Next Month
1) Publicize Universal Class
2) Develop calendar of events for Summer Program 2013

3) Investigate Library moisture / odor issues

Evergreen Update

Upton Library has started to see the software crashing issues that have been reported by other CWMARS libraries.  We’ve been experiencing crashes every 3-4 hours, compared to larger libraries that are reporting crashes hourly.  On Feb 25^th, CWMARS applied a software patch to hopefully resolve some of the crashing, we’ll see if that helps over the next month.

CWMARS is also seeking a long-term fix to the slow response times from Evergreen, which will involve major coding and development projects.  Matthew will be attending meetings and conference calls to stay updated and in contact with other libraries about Evergreen.

Library Improvements

John and I presented the outline of the Library Improvements project to the Finance Committee on Feb 6^th.  They suggested that we thoroughly investigate the persistent odor problem at the library before committing to the project.  With the help of the Town Manager, Matthew has begun looking into causes and possible solutions to the odor problem.  We’ll go as far as we can with free and volunteer investigation, but at some point we might need to spend some funds to hire professionals.

Universal Class

Publicity for Universal Class has begun.  We got a couple nice articles in local news outlets (Upton Daily Voice and Milford Daily News).  I have not yet been able to get any reports or statistics to see if patrons are using the service.  We will continue to promote the service directly to patrons.

Photocopier and DVD repair system replaced

A replacement DVD repair system and a new Photocopier have been purchased and are in use at the library.  The DVD repair machine cost will be reimbursed from the Friends of the Upton Library.  It is used to repair library DVDs and CDs, and is also available for patrons to have personal discs repaired for a $1 donation to the Friends.

The photocopier is on a 3 year lease with included maintenance agreement.  In addition to copying, we have the copier connected to our public internet for use as a printer and scanner.